John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is fair enough. However, Mr. Hamill mentioned Joe Duffy. What he did was a very good example of what needs to be repeated. I have been listening to and reading takes from historians and other experts for the past year and it is leaving me cold at this point. They are not focusing on the people who died. It seems to be irrelevant to some of them. There is a dearth with regard to the people who died in 1916. All one has to do is go around Dublin. There is a monument which does not even name the Volunteers at Upper Mount Street bridge which is where the biggest battle took place. It mentions the Volunteers and no one else. Michael Malone's name is commemorated with two others on a gravestone in Glasnevin.

This is where the focus of Mr. Hamill and his officials should be. Historians will know about this. I am just giving a viewpoint. I started a committee in Waterford and we put together the First World War memorial which is located in Dungarvan. We had one rule: no politics. When it was unveiled, people from every political party came to the unveiling. When asked questions which were politically inclined, we made it clear that we were not going to get involved in it and that people could make their own interpretations on the First World War, who was right and who was wrong with regard to who served. There is a danger here and I see it beginning already. Politicians and ex-politicians are giving their interpretations. I will not say that this is happening ad nauseambut it is leaving me cold at this point. Direction needs to be given by the people in the Department in this case when it comes to, at the very least, the people who died.